Improvement in the construction of albums



UNTTED STATES PATENT OEETCE.

JOHN D. METS, OF DUBUQUE, IOWA.

Specification forming of Letters Patent No. l 7, l 20, dated April 4, 1865.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that l, JOHN D. ME'rs, of Dubuque, county of Dubuque, and State oflowa, have invented anew and useful Improvement in Fastening, Joining, and Binding the Leaves Vof Photograph-Albums, Picture-Books, and

Engravings; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part of this specification, in whichl Figure l shows the method of preparing the leaves for binding. Fig. 2 is an edge view of Fig. l. Fig. 3 shows the method ot' attaching the prepared leaves together. Fig. 4 is an end view of the back of a book of leaves ready for binding.

Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several gures.

The nature of my invention consists in connecting together thick leaves, preparatory to binding them into book form, by means of narrow strips of leather, cloth, or other suitable material possessing the requisite degree of iiexibility and strength, said connections being made without increasing the thickness ofthe back edges of such leaves, as will be hereinafter described.

To enable others skilled in the art to fully understand my invention, I will describe its canstruction and operation.

In the accompanying drawings, a represents a strip of thin leather, which should be equal in length to the leaves to which it is applied. b b represent thin card-boards,which form the filling and give the requisite degree of stiffness and thickness to the leaves. These boards b b should be nearly equal in thickness to one-half the thickness of a leaf when completed, the proper thickness being given to the leaf by the thin facing c o, which latter is pasted over one side of the boards b b and extended a short distance over the leather strip a', as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. I. It will be seen by reference to the drawings that the back edges of the llingboards b b abut against the edges of the strip a, and that they are secured to this strip by pasting the overlapping portions of the facing-paper thereto. When the preparation of the leaves has progressed thus far, they are put under pressure and dried, so that they will be smooth and their parts iirmly cemented together.

Fig. 1 represents one leaf or two halves of a leaf ready to be applied to others prepared in a similar manner.

In Fig. 3 I have represented the method (f completing the leaves and at the same time securing them together in the form represented in Fig. 4, which consists in pasting tle connected half-leaves of Fig. l to other connected 'half-leaves, so as to form a continued connection ot' all the leaves and half-leaves and to have two iillingboards always exposed. in order to enable me to multiply the leavt s indefinitely, or until the proper number has been put together to form a book of the required thickness. lhe leaves thus formed and connected together are pressed and dried in order to make their joints lie compactly together.

l have found that cloth or cloth lined with paper will answer a very good purpose as a substitute for leather for connecting together the half-leaves 5 and for very large albums or other books l propose to cover the leather connecting-strips on the inside with strips ot' cloth, which will lap over and be pasted to the filling-boards.

It' desirable, the leaves may be more firmly attached together by stitching, which may be done in the usual manner of stitching the leaves of books without materially stiftening the joints. In the latter instance the haltl leaves may all be stitched before they are pasted together.

It will not be found necessary to stitch the leaves together, as by my method of pasting together the half-leaves to form the solid leaves I make up the book with the leaves all connected together in a firm and durable manner.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

Gonnectin g together the leaves of books by means of strips of leather, cloth, or the equivalents thereof, applied substantially as described.

Witnesses FRANcrs DoYLE, RICHARD J. WHITE.

JOHN D. METS. 

